Things Toby Says

Who would have thunk that I’d get the most hits ever to this site just by not having a job. Thanks to everyone who commented or wrote in with kind words. Unfortunately for those of you here looking for dirt, I can’t say much more yet about the future or the past. Not yet.

So let’s talk about writing. Sometimes, when I’m feeling like a pretentious and self-involved writer¹, except I’m not actually sitting down and writing anything, I watch this clip of The West Wing (episode: “Arctic Radar”) in which Toby vets Will’s writing. I like the part where he says, “This is incredibly good, Will.” I close my eyes and imagine I’m there.

But I also like the way he describes something that’s maybe akin to writer’s block, but isn’t quite the same. Writer’s fatigue, maybe? Whatever. The point is this: Toby’s talking about how badly it’s going, but he’s still got his own “500-word stanza on American leadership in a globally interdependent age,” doesn’t he? In this little parable, “the President” is anything or anyone for whom you are writing.

(While we’re at it, I adore the writing and the timing in this clip about the funding available from the NEA.)

If you’re not a regular visitor, I expect you won’t be coming back for long, so let’s save you some time. Here are three of the most-read posts on the site. In most cases, this is because I fell backwards into valuable Google keywords. In one case, I think it’s because the post is sort of good. You decide:

• 300 Reviews
• Roy Batty Has A Posse
• Cylons As Seraphim and Nephilim
• Had It A Minute Ago

^{1. The punchline is obviously, “So, just when I’m awake.”}
Music: The Drovers, “Book of Songs”

Any Title Except “Lone Wolf,” I Beg You

As of last Friday, October 5th, I am no longer an employee of White Wolf Publishing. I’m a freelancer once again, actively looking for contracts and assignments to add to those I already have queueing up. Likewise, I’m looking for one of those legendary “day jobs,” so I can pay my real mortgage while chasing my imaginary career.

Stop sending emails to my white-wolf.com and ccpgames.com addresses. I can’t hear you when you do that. If you’d like to contact me about work (or whatever), please send an email to my first name @ wordstudio dot net (except all assembled into a grammatical email address). If you’d like more information on what’s happening with me now, what the future holds, and what this all means for you and I, the line starts here. Let’s hope the show is worth the price of the ticket.

This is an exciting time. (An obvious lie — I mean “terrifying,” not exciting.) More commentary, speculation, rumination, and melodrama to come in the near future, since I’ll have time to blog. This time might be the explorer’s wide horizon of layered mountains hiding the misty fields laid on the mystic curve of infinity, or it might be the prisoner’s pit of drowning hours accumulating in a cell like a cistern. We’ll see. Hell, I may even cogitate. Don’t want to miss that. So do stay tuned.

Music: The Veils, “Night Thoughts of a Tired Surgeon”